Tanvi Lad shook off her first game loss and pulled off a rare victory over Rituparna Das in a three-set match and entered the women’s singles final of the Manorama-Indian Open National-ranking badminton tournament here on Saturday.
The unseeded Rituparna, one of the most talented players in the country, who trains at the Gopi Chand Academy in Hyderabad, won the first game comfortably but let slip 8-4 and 11-7 leads in the next game.
The second game was close and the two were level at 14, 17 and 20, but Tanvi, currently ranked more than 50 rungs above her opponent in the World rankings at No. 63, held her nerve at this crucial juncture. Fifth-seeded Tanvi raced to a 7-3 lead in the decider and, though Rituparna came close at 13-14 and 19-20, hung on to win the match.
Aparna-Prajakta duo triumphsMeanwhile, Petroleum’s Aparna Balan and Prajakta Sawant won the women’s doubles title defeating J. Meghana and Poorvisha S. Ram, an Air India-Karnataka combination, 24-22, 21-11.
The results:Men’s semifinals: S. Daniel Farid (Kar) bt Pratul Joshi (MP) 21-17, 21-18; Shubham Prajapati (MP) bt Bodhit Joshi (Utr) 21-16, 21-19. Doubles semifinals: Sanave Thomas & K.T. Rupesh Kumar (Ker) bt Vignesh Devlekar (AI) & Rohan Kapoor (Del) 17-21, 21-18, 21-12; K. Nanda Gopal (CAG) & Sanyam Shukla (AI) bt K. Chaitanya Reddy & T. Hemanagendra Babu (Rly) 21-15, 21-8. Quarterfinals: Bodhit Joshi bt Kartikey Gulshan Kumar (AI) 21-11, 17-21, 21-18; Shubham Prajapati bt Neeraj Vashisth (Rly) 21-15, 19-21, 21-19; S. Daniel Farid bt Lakshya Sen (Utr) 21-16, 16-21, 21-17; Pratul Joshi bt N.V.S. Vijetha (Tel) 21-12, 22-20.
Women’s semifinals: Tanvi Lad (PSPB) bt Rituparna Das (Tel) 11-21, 24-22, 21-18; Sri Krishna Priya K. (Tel) bt G. Vrushali (Tel) 21-16, 18-21, 21-17.
Quarterfinals: Sri Krishna Priya bt Shikha Gautam (Kar) 21-15, 21-16; G. Vrushali bt Reshma Karthik (AI) 21-13, 21-14; Tanvi Lad bt Sai Uttejitha Rao Ch. (AP) 21-19, 22-20; Rituparna Das bt Vaidehi Choudhari (Mah) 21-11, 21-18.
Doubles final: Aparna Balan & Prajakta Sawant (PSPB) bt J. Meghana (AI) & Poorvisha S. Ram (Kar) 24-22, 21-11.
